Greenpeace and the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York
called on the members of the United Nations to use U.N. resolution
377, known as “Uniting for Peace” to avoid a war on Iraq. The
resolution would allow the 191 members of the United Nations to
hold an Emergency Session of the General Assembly because the UN
Security Council is split on the issue of how to maintain
international peace and security.
The “Uniting for Peace” resolution states that if the permanent
members of the Security Council cannot agree on measures to contain
a “threat to the peace” the General Assembly can meet within 24
hours to consider and potentially recommend measures to United
Nations members.
“It is clear that the United States and United Kingdom will not
succeed in ramming through a resolution to go to war,” said
Greenpeace Political Advisor Steve Sawyer, speaking from the
headquarters of the United Nations. “Yet it’s also clear that, even
without U.N. backing, those countries intend to wage a reckless
war, which would make the world a much more dangerous place. It’s
now up to all the world’s countries, not just a few of the
powerful, to meet together to avert this march to war.”
The “Uniting for Peace” resolution has been invoked ten times in
the past 50 years. After Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal in 1956,
Britain and France attacked and occupied parts of the canal.
Britain and France vetoed cease-fire resolutions in the Security
Council. The United States went to the General Assembly calling for
a cease-fire and a withdrawal of British and French forces. An
emergency session was held under the “Uniting for Peace”
resolution, and in the face of strong resolutions from the General
Assembly, it took less then a week for Britain and France to
withdraw.
Uniting for Peace was again used by the United States to
pressure the Soviet Union to cease its intervention in Hungary in
1956, after the Soviet Union had used its veto to prevent the
passage of an anti-intervention resolution in the Security Council.
Again, an emergency session of the General Assembly was held and
the Soviet Union was ordered to stop its intervention in
Hungary.
“If people wanted the world to be
ruled by the cowboy with the biggest guns, the UN wouldn’t have
been created in the first place,” added Sawyer. “The U.N.,
including the General Assembly, was created to preserve the rule of
law and promote multilateralism. It’s time the U.N. fully exercises
its mandate and unites as a whole to defend its founding principles
and stop the impending attack on Iraq, which would be the most
horrific example of unilateralism. It must take this last chance
for peace.”
